`It's An Eclectic Place'

Historic Main Street Eatery Changes Ownership

The wall of black-and-white photos of Hartford life will come down, but only temporarily.

The $1.25 Muni special -- a slice of hot ham, egg and cheese on a soft bun -- will still be served.

The big change, as of Wednesday, is that the nostalgic guy standing behind the counter is history.

After nearly 20 years of running the historic Municipal Cafeteria, Bob McKay of Eastford and his wife, Lorry, will be sleeping late, for a few weeks, anyway. They recently sold the Main Street restaurant business to brother and sister Jeffrey and Lynsey Spring.

``I feel a little empty. This has been a large part of my life,'' said 64-year-old Bob McKay, who served free coffee on his last day at work. ``It's an eclectic place where each person can stand on their own merit.''

McKay said he plans to spend the next year raising money to help homeowners facing foreclosure and promoting his building for commercial development.

Over the years, the restaurant at Main and Elm streets, across from city hall, attracted customers including recovering drug addicts, federal judges, city employees and officials and celebrity visitors, including former President Bush.

``It's kind of bittersweet,'' said former City Councilman Michael McGarry, a close friend of McKay's who stopped by for a coffee Wednesday. ``It's sad to see that era go, but they deserve the break.''

The Muni also was a welcoming place for those down on their luck.

``I probably would have been in jail or on the street if it wasn't for Bob,'' said Ruben Soto, 39, who kicked drug and alcohol problems shortly after McKay hired him as a dishwasher two years ago. ``He's helped a lot of people in here.''

The restaurant has been a Hartford institution since the mid-1920s, when brothers Spiros and Anast Bacus opened an earlier version a few blocks away on Main Street.

The Greek immigrants opened another Hartford landmark at about the same time, Connecticut Lunch on Union Place.

The brothers moved the Muni to its current address at 485 Main St. in the mid-`40s and sold the business, and then the building, in the late 1970s.

``I miss that old restaurant,'' said Bessie Nichols, 78, of Wethersfield, daughter of Spiros Bacus, who died in 1985. ``It was like old home week when I went in there.''

The place was bought in 1981 from Darrell Peterson by Bob McKay and his younger brother, Dave McKay, a Vietnam veteran and former co-owner of the popular Mad Murphy's nightclub on Union Place. Dave McKay sold his share before moving to Chicago eight years ago.

McKay, who still owns the building, sold the restaurant business earlier this month to Lynsey Spring, a singer who has worked at setting up TGI Friday's restaurants throughout the country, and Jeffrey Spring, a Windsor disc jockey and record store owner who rents space in the building from McKay.

Lynsey Spring will run the restaurant and plans no major changes, she said. The restaurant will close today for renovations and is expected to reopen in early January, keeping the same name.

``I've waited all my life for something like this,'' she said. ``It's just a perfect time.''

McKay said he sold the business for a ``fraction'' of the $100,000 he paid Peterson almost 20 years ago, but declined to be specific.

When the McKay brothers bought the place, they changed it from a breakfast and lunch joint to a nightclub that featured rock bands and Cajun zydeco music. Bob McKay's three grown children also worked in the restaurant over the past 20 years.

The interior of the restaurant has not changed much since the Bacus brothers opened the place. Visitors were greeted by the style of a bygone era that includes stained pine floors, wooden booths, the original tin ceiling and walls covered with photos of Hartford people and places dating back more than 150 years.

McKay's sale of the Muni ``almost brings you to tears,'' said legendary Hartford photographer Tony DeBonee, who claims to have taken 40,000 photos of Hartford, some of which were hung on the restaurant's ``celebrity wall.''